#massively wasted potential imo

[evilkitten3]

i was gonna ask if there was one of those everycharacter blogs for hanabi but like. i don't know if we ever see her after the chuunin exams arc? like i'm not sure she ever shows up again. we see her in kurenai's flashback about hinata, and she shows up to watch neji's fight in the finals, and.... i think that's pretty much it.

[jacksonseymour13]

This post is long

Anybody feels disappointed there wasn't enough angst, mistrust or tension between Gi-Hun and In-Ho? Angst!Inhun

I love these old lovelies and this ship with all my heart but I can't help but feel like it was lacking in overall conflict. Two people working together,main protagonist and main antagonist being allies. Gi-Hun's massive trust issues that were played up in the first 2 episodes leading up to him joining the games didn't nearly impact enough as the episodes proceeded. The significance of #01 and that connection to the old guy from S1(help I forgot his name😭🙏🏻).

I needed In-Ho proving and bending over backwards to have Gi-Hun trust his ass. In-Ho was on a mission to infiltrate Gihun's trust before ripping it apart last second as a "I told you so honey".

Gi-Hun definitely had a stronger tense dynamic with Sangwoo in the game, yes you could argue their childhood besties and have known each other for as long as possible but it doesn't change the fact Gi-Hun was weary of Sang Woo and showed several moments doubting his authentic nature in the game, especially after glass Bridge.

GIVE ME A HANDOUT! I need them screaming at each other and having a power struggle with Team X, I need them driving each other crazy and wanting to beat the living shit out of each other(although they never come to blows😉). Fake player In-Ho and Gi-Hun's dynamic was IMO wasted and could've been so much juicier. I'm happy with what we got but...

The greedy desperate cunty that I am needed just a little more gravitas and sprinkles of a little bit of this and that in their relationship. Gi-Hun should have been 100% suspicious and kept his guard up with In-Ho after he was the sole responsibility why everyone continued in the games post-1st vote. His red flags should have been going off crazily. Gi-Hun joined the game with focus not to play the same game again and play as Level 1, nah bro. He had his stats and composure maxed out.

He should have made a mental note of In-Ho never being present(becausenowayGihunwouldsuddenlyforgetahandsomemofolikethat)for waking up,red light green light and before the vote. Blud just teleported in. Gi-Hun had no real reason to trust In-Ho either but let me run with it before I get cooked by everyone(I still ship but the writing was a little questionable)

I would have loved Gi-Hun and In-Ho to have a conversation after 6 legs about In-Ho 'crash out moment'. That's his first glimpse exposing himself to Gihun without this unpenetratable armor of confidence. He saw In-Ho at a stressed point and would've been nice of him to reach out, make sure he's okay. They have a heart to heart there and In-Ho gets some truth off his chest that he has all this pressure of maintaining a perfect exterior. It would show a sense of inferiority complex and a little more depth of In-Ho in Gi-Hun's eyes. Gi-Hun just has the reason why In-Ho voted 'O and nothing else.

Using the fanon brainrot with this last one but I would have Gi-Hun replace Jung-Bae in the last mingle round of 2 players. It makes sense they would go together, It would be very interesting and turning point in Gi-Hun's eyes regarding In-Ho. It sucks because the writers HAD it right there and just did nothing with it. Jung-Bae not telling Gihun or Gihun ever picking up a sign In-Ho cannot be trusted was so fluffy and for what? I love fluff Inhun but angst Inhun would have went TWICE as hard.

Gi-Hun trust would probably solidify after seeing In-Ho kill that player after he votes for 'X but the potential, the confrontation and doubt needed to be shown so we can see how In-Ho would tip toe around such questions. Gi-Hun asking him where he was during RLGR,why he really voted for 'O in the first game just to turn around and vote 'X afterwards. The writers really let me down with this one yall but still a super sexy toxic ship that didn't fail me. Can't wait to see what Reveal!Inhun has in store for us.

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week? (Specially The Ultimates #4)

Anonymous asked: Comics this week ?

My Adventures With Superman #4 - I know the DCAU JLU Christmas episode is popular, but I've always been put off by it. I can't help seeing an air of condescension in how it treats Superman being a grown man who still believes in Santa, I get a "yes he's dumb and gullible, but isn't that wholesome?" takeaway from it all. Meanwhile I loved how Josie Campbell explored celebrating Christmas here as an expression of love and family. Ma and Pa adopted Clark as their son even though he wasn't blood, then the comic expands that to touch on how Lois and Jimmy have become "family" too. Even extends it right up to Amazo getting treated by Clark as a brother in a touching moment where Superman willingly shares his powers with Amazo so they both can kick Bloodsport and Deathstroke's asses, and Amazo tells Clark he thinks of Clark as family also. It's all very sweet right up until Deathstroke blows a hole in Amazo at the end. Bloodsport is the coolest he has ever been here, when he brings out the big guns I was hooting and hollering. I think this might be my favorite take on Amazo now too. I dug his DCAU incarnation but this is the first time I'm really invested in him as a character, and there's tension because he might not make it out alive.

Absolute Power #3 - Waid is trying to weave together the disparate threads of the past year into a cohesive whole, while simultaneously trying to shuffle the detritus of the past year off the board. End result is a mess of stitched together moments that don't work imo. Example of that is Nightwing "stepping up" as a leader, yet his push feeling hollow when his team failed to take the League's place. A number of other characters like Barda and Mid-Nite get written out of character so that Dick as the avatar of the Silver Age ethos can prove them wrong. Oh and if I have to read another issue of Waid going HEART is our REAL superpower, I think my eyes might be permanently stuck in a cycle of rolling.

Ultimates #4 - Ultimates #4 reminded me of reading Ruins. Exceptionally bleak from beginning to end, poor 6160 Reed. It avoids being nihilistic at least because there is a malicious bad actor in Maker who is making sure that everything turns out as bad as it possibly can, rather than it simply being the nature of the world. Sets up an Ultimate F4 book for sure, but given how Doom is outright skirting the edge of villainy with how he ominously says he’s adhering to Tony’s moral rules for now, I’m wondering if he won’t actually be a part of the team. Maybe he’s the one who gets captured and Tony creates an Ultimate F4 of entirely new people to go save him? Otherwise I see their failure to beat Hulk being the point at which Doom bails on the Ultimates team. I’d prefer Doom be part of the Ultimate F4 though, he’s simply too interesting as a Reed who is massively messed up but is trying to be a hero. If they do end up making him a villain that would be an utter waste of potential. Maker is already the broken Reed, Doom needs to be the Reed who is bent but not broken. Seeing him walk the tightrope is more interesting than seeing him fall off.

[littjara-mirrorlake]

im coping that maybe in the end mom or aftermath he can still be rebuilt 😭😭🤞🙏

if this is literally the permanent end of urabrask then i no longer care for the story nor phyrexia as a whole. my enjoyment of them was very much based on urabrask and his vision for them and without that they lose any enjoyable nuance for me and just go back to being evil plague monsters

it would be waste of a good character otherwise and someoneto use if the ever need phyrexia again but not in a major antagonist role

like the fact we didnt even get a full story from his perspective?!? the absolute waste

Yeah.... as I said, I'm very worried about Urabrask, especially considering what he represents: the hope of a freed, non-villainous Phyrexia where its denizens are allowed to simply be people. If he actually goes down, that could be very bad for the end of the story and for Phyrexia's continued representation in general.

I do think that Urabrask is far from the only hope for nuance in Phyrexia, but he definitely looms large in most people's minds as that.

And I definitely agree that it's a massive waste of story potential not to narrate anything from Urabrask's perspective, when he is (imo) one of the most important, if not the most important, voices in the narrative.

[sapphire-weapon]

Your analysis about Ada and Leon makes so much sense (add in his miserable trapped-in-unending-danger and killing the president... yeah. Of course Leon's at a breakdown point. It'd be a miracle for Leon to stay sane at all).

I think that's what bothers me most about the ship though. Ada doesn't actually owe him anything. She never claimed to either. She certainly didn't owe romance or friendship. The whole idea of him losing his mind for the IDEA of somebody he doesn't know... being manipulated over and over again while she also doesn't really get a huge amount of storytime other than "oh yeah, he likes her but it's still a mystery and she kinda just uses him but then saves him but then uses him again". I just think the whole thing's a mess. That's my personal opinion. I hold strong in the idea that if the remakes change their story entirely, both characters could benefit in huge ways.

Aeon destroys Ada as a character. Absolutely wastes her potential and ignores who actually is, other than a fantasy. It completely stunts Leons development too and how he interacts with the other people around him. Was he kind of a dick in RE4make? Yeah. But at least it actually makes total sense and Separate Ways has a massive potential on their hands to finally develop Ada as her own character, with her own actually written out story and clear motives. Remove the romance, and you'll find two much better written stories (imo).

I feel like "Ada manipulates Leon" is such a... surface-level interpretation.

For better or for worse, Leon is canonically one of the smartest people in the cast. He's no Rebecca Chambers, but he was a straight-A student who also got top marks in police academy and is the single most powerful weapon the US government has produced since the atomic bomb.

To say that Ada manipulates Leon implies that he doesn't know that he's being used. He knows. He knew it in RE4, he knew it in Damnation, and he still knew it in RE6, regardless of anything else. RE2make even goes a step further and says he knew it in RE2, even. He knows, and he just lets her do it.

But, like... sad to say it, but that's what Leon does.

Leon objectifies himself. Leon allows himself to be used. That's all he's ever done.

He lets the government use him, he lets Ada use him, and he, to a certain extent, lets Chris use him, too. Because Leon's self-image is as such that his entire sense of self-worth is wrapped up in how useful he is.

Vendetta is the single only instance in his entire character arc that he reflects on his life and thinks that maybe -- just maybe -- he deserved better. "Is this what my life's supposed to be?"

So, with the whole Ada thing, this just makes everything even more complicated because not only was he chasing after her for answers, but he'd also had to force himself to believe that she was using him for the sake of the greater good. All of his shit re: Ada was wrapped up in a delusion he'd created in order to justify the current state of his life.

He's finally starting to break out and away from that mindset. It's going to be really interesting to see where the next numbered game he's in takes him, because I really do think it's going to end up harboring a giant Tower moment for him.

And, yeah... re: Aeon ruining Ada's character. We've talked about that at such great lengths on this blog already. There's really not much more to say on it. I really hope RE4make's Separate Ways puts her on a more independent path.

[svedupelle]

rwby volume 9 isnt filler. the true filler are volumes 4-8... kind of

rwby's always had an issue of not being capable of managing its cast properly. in the past people said that it's because the cast was too big, and that's still true, it's been true the whole way through. but the problem doesnt lie in the number of characters, rather its the number of relevant characters. for some ungodly reason, the writers REFUSE to leave out characters, even when there's simply no reason for them to be there and even when their presence is actively detrimental, due to the fact that the writers will drag focus away from important characters to put it on less relevant characters.

for example: why is weiss in volume 9? why is she even in volumes 5 and 6? why are jaune, nora and ren in volumes 7-8? why is blake in volumes 7-9? all of these characters in each of these volumes could either be completely removed, or their moments & arcs could be better placed in another volume entirely for the benefit of the show.

weiss' only substantial contribution during v5-6 is her conversation with yang in the bedroom, which helps yang not be completely pissed off at blake. that's it. the rest of the time she's in the background, cracking jokes maybe and offering needless commentary. which is also all she does in volume 9! and by god she could've opened her mouth less and it would've made the volume better. but even in volumes 7 and 8, she feels relevant! a big part of it is due to the schnee family playing second fiddle to salem in terms of main conflict, but even then weiss barely gets the spotlight.

jaune, ren and nora dont really need to be in volumes 7 and 8. nora and ren's conflict just.. comes out of nowhere and frankly there was nno particular reason for them not to undergo that during v5 or 6. jaune is completely a background character until he kills penny and falls to the ever after, which imo was a bad call! why have jaune kill penny instead of ruby?? do jaune and penny even have a conversation? on the other hand, ruby having to kill penny would be far more impactful and would make her whole situation in the ever after that much more distressing. (i dont think ruby should've killed penny just for the edginess of it; but giving that moment to jaune is so fucking strange)

blake in volume 7 and 8 is a total waste of potential. you're telling you put the character with the most relevance to the faunus cause in the kingdom most well known for its racism and you barely have her mention it? in fact, DOES she even mention it? i know the writers dont want to touch the faunus subplot with a ten foot stick but that was a massive fucking blunder on their part. and as for volume 9, tbh bmblb should've become canon after vol 6. at latest in volume 7. dragging it out this fucking long did not feel good lol

laslty, ruby's arc this volume should've happened in volumes 4-8. it's insane to me that they give her absolutely nothing for four or five volumes straight and then rush it in the eleventh hour. jaune has like five character arcs during that span of time like what the fuck

whatever. the volume 9 finale reminded me of why i love this show and also why i absolutely despise it i hope we get a volume 10!

[transmutationisms]

really enjoying this mencken speculation: one of many chars. i’m excited to see more of in s4. how much do you think the roy sibling schism around mencken will impact whatever goals they have to achieve as the rebel alliance in taking on logan? (like will it be miniscule or overshadowed by another plot point or could it be a big tipping point for their efforts inevitably collapsing) what do you think kendall’s take on him will be? (he’s obviously an optics-driven progressive guy but something tells me if push comes to shove he might back roman/mencken. meanwhile i see shiv heading staunchly in the other direction - probably with presidential candidate connor roy following suit)

my speculations on kendall's reaction below but i think the importance of the mencken thing depends on whether this huge massive spoiler from this reddit thread is true. seriously don't click on that unless you are okay with a gigantic spoiler lol.

anyway if that is true and occurs prior to the mencken election episode (which it does if they're filming in order) then i think the sibling alliance has already fallen apart by this point, because they were always more defined by what they were fighting against than by having any proactive plan of their own. if the above spoiler is not true then the mencken thing could possibly be what shatters them, but more likely they just fall apart because, as in season 3, they're all blinded by looking out for their own interests and don't truly know how to collaborate with one another.

re: connor..... god i want him to run as a democrat with pierce family backing. like can you imagine?? his larouchist slay. and the potential connor-shiv teamup would be very funny. i hope he's still in the picture by the time the mencken thing goes down; if he runs third-party and he's already dead by this point then that's just a waste of him as a character imo.

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Don't feel like WtG had a saving, the premise was incredibly superficial and the MCs writing felt like it was done by a man from the 90s. Massive objectification, like Snow being set as nasty because she is free to get with men before "finding the right one", Sleeping Beauty being resumed into "a killer body", Rapunzel an "innocent highschooler" that objective is to have a man. And we don't even talk about Jasmine having a full hispanic surname (cause they didn't shit cultures enough).

What was already written was indeed unsalvageable. It really seemed like it was done by some middle aged dude who had a very peculiar idea about "Western emancipated women" and what ethnicities actually are (aka Yazmin - I wonder if it's because their shallow name search ended up on the Sephardic singer and they went "not looking into it, Spain it is"). There was absolutely not even a bit of sensitivity research on Solmare's part and it was more than clear that they don't understand shit about what they're trying to do.

But I do not agree that the premise needed to be good. I'm fine with it being dumb, silly, making no sense etc. It needed only to be a start of a fun story. But the faults ultimately made it a very painful read.

Breaking the trope of the typical otome MC was an interesting idea imo and that's what I mean when I say it had potential. MCs of colour and LIs of colour could have been a great addition to the otome landscape of that time if the execution of that idea wasn't this abysmal. Solmare had no fraking clue what they're even doing, it was like a friend of a friend of a cousin told them Westerners like that so let's do it.

Some tiny aspects were actually refreshing, differing from typical narrative. Like when MC and her foe from Sleeping Beauty found out the LI has been two-timing them and swore revenge on him and suspended their own rivalry. Atharv being shamelessly bi in commentary, Sirena admitting she could eventually fall for Blanche. (In both cases the wording could have been better though :/ well...) There were MCs who actually found fulfillment in their work and didn't want to return to being princesses - and didn't have to. Some MCs were supported and loyally accompanied by their friends through hardships (Blanche/Snow White was very loyal to Sirena despite her foul mouth). Some of the villains had actually a lot of valid things to say (only some though). Those aspects could have been so good if it wasn't Solmare writing it.

The fact that I'm defending the game really gives me psychological damage... what have u done/j

It was extremely uneven, such good moments mixing with exceptionally shitty takes, bits of interesting characterisation as side characters but swept by shallow cliches that made those characters one-dimensional in their own routes. Every good motif shot down by two bad ones. In the end the potential was completely wasted and ruined by the awful writing, stereotyping and shallow characterisation, and some crappy endings, also something that Solmare truly excells in.

[transgenderer]

@nohoperadio said:

I think I was lucky to read the novels when I was too young and dumb to apply any kind of satirical lens to them because "guy has a very simple task to accomplish but a long series of minor yet somehow impassable obstacles keep randomly tripping him up for hundreds of pages" makes a really compelling story on its own merits imo. Never liked The Metamorphosis though.

(I think having those books in my bloodstream from early on in my reading career primed me to have The Unconsoled as my favourite Ishiguro which everyone else hates, so fair warning I may just be a freak)

hmm. so i started the trial and i guess maybe the problem is that i do not find that idea compelling? that seems like it sucks. maybe i empathize too much with characters. im not good at empathizing with people irl but i find i sort of massively overempathize with the perspective character im reading. so i have to be somewhat careful. i kind of liked the metamorphosis? again im not really sure i got it

@wildgifthorses said:

at least from what I've read, Kafka seems to specialize in kind of "ironic" suffering - missed opportunities, wasted potential, the suffering of burdening others with your suffering, self-defeating neuroticism, etc. And also he's just good at vividly weird grotesque ideas.

The Metamorphosis is famous for a reason cause it showcases both of these really well. That's the only longer thing of his I've read (I have a copy of Amerika I'll get to eventually...) but I've read a lot of the shorter stuff, mostly by just paging around in a Complete Stories, and I feel like that's kind of the way to go.

but idk, I am not like one of these huge kafka fans. he's kind of like borges to me, lots of interesting ideas but after a handful you're like "ok I'm good for a while now"

hmm. im reading nabokovs dozen rn and i find the pieces that are mostly just ironic suffering kind of boring. i dont really...care about suffering? i think? as a reader, i find suffering boring. or boringness suffering. like. idk nabokov is better cuz he makes it funny. cloud castle lake has some funny stuff. and also its very idk, poignant i guess. but people love kafka so much....i liked invitation to a beheading which is supposed to be similar to kafka but idk, invitation to a beheading is sort of fun and surreal in a way. maybe the trial gets fun but it doesnt SOUND like it gets fun.

i'm not sure i really "get" kafka. like. it feels like it's about how much life and especially society sucks, right? but man, i know that. maybe there's something else. or maybe that was more novel in kafka times...

[sludge-wizard]

I’ve noticed lately there’s an uptick in people who write characters as being poor/growing up poor(particularly Mario and Luigi), and I love to see it because I grew up poor myself. I wanted to compile a bunch of memories I have of growing up poor as a potential reference to anybody who wants it, because i know not everybody here was broke but wants to write characters as broke and it can be hard to find resources that AREN’T just guesses at what things might’ve been like. do note my own experiences aren’t universal, but they’re what I’m familiar with since it was my own childhood.

Definitely not a totally complete list and I'll add more as I think of them, and if people want to ask me questions for any clarification, go ahead!

-Brushing our teeth by taking a mouthful of watered down mouthwash and sticking the toothbrush in your mouth and brushing with your mouth full so we didnt need to buy toothpaste

-often times breakfast was just a glass of milk because it was relatively cheap

-fancy family breakfasts were sundays only and usually simple french crepes because they’re only eggs milk and flour, and we’d have them with butter+sugar or lemon+sugar

-my mom was a waitress at nights and those days she’d send home leftovers from her job as dinner since they didnt want to waste at the restaurant she worked at

-Birthdays i always shared with my older sister and parties were every other year with a hard limit on 5 invites each. they were either at the small family owned movie theatre or the bowling alley.

-I never had a playdate at my own house. I never understood at the time, but i know now it was because our house was really run down and we didn’t have extra snacks or anything to entertain guests really

-once a month our mom would have enough change scrounged up to send me and my siblings (5 of us total) to the corner store 2 blocks down for slurpees. Highlight of the month.

-we’d have quesadillas a lot (tortillas with cheese salsa and chicken, not really authentic) because one grocery store chicken could feed everybody for 2 days straight this way

-fried rice or hash browns with bacon and onions were a common meal since onions, potatoes, rice and bulk frozen bacon was cheap at the time

-every family pet we ever had were rescues we got for free with the exception of my 2 current cats which my mom bought for $75 off of kijiji 14 years ago. I still have the kitties!

-we often had those massive flatpacks of assorted soda flavours because it was cheaper than juice or bottled water but we were limited to 2 cans a week

-we shared the bathwater up until we were in highschool, and even then we wouldn’t drain the tub if somebody else needed a bath and they could re-use the water.

-the local church would send a lot of donations our way. the most prominent were bags upon bags of day old bakery bread they couldnt sell.

-a lot of times dinner were whole frozen fish we could get for cheap since they were too small to cut and sell as fillets.

-hot dogs were a VERY common meal because they were cheap in bulk frozen packs

-the fanciest appliance in the whole house was a massive, clunky kitchen maid my mom got at her wedding.

-we always made our own fresh pesto since it was much cheaper than storebought pastes. it also tastes WAY better imo

-every christmas the local church would request gifts of a certain variety, under the premise of secret santas. they’d ask for “gift for -gender- child, -age-, -interest- and then send the gifts to the appropriate family. We got a LOT of gift cards to places like indigo or EB games/Gamestop for this reason

-the year my older brother and I got nintendo DSlites for christmas was because we were donated money. we each got 1 DS game each, and took turns with them. all the DS games we got after that were second hand or donated.

-I had about 15 random Littlest Pet Shops and no houses/playsets for them because again, donations. the one year I finally got one was during a white elephant at the local church, where I got the messenger pigeon and post office.

[evilkitten3]

I can't believe Hitsugaya's reigai is a fucking cowboy he gets less valid every time the writers even think about him

[cosmic-espero]

I know it's just fanservice but if Masters has Ash' event be some "he's cooler than Red" circlejerk instead of getting into the fact that they're literally countepart from different dimensions I'm rioting.

I'm even willing to buy Ash's massive amounts of circumstantial plot armour as being capable of making him defeat Red (even though the latter is objectively much stronger than him lorewise, which is not a diss against Ash- I could talk about why imo Red should stay the strongest trainer from a narrative perspective but the post would get too long), but not if it comes with no actual aknowledgment of the separate continuities they come from.

There is so much potential that comes with this situation that I see going unaddressed for now and I'm afraid they'll end up wasting this massive chance they've been given.

Please don't fuck this up.

[procrastinatorproject]

Headcanon comparison time! 😁

(Note: NONE OF THIS is to say your headcanons are invalid or to start Ace Discourse! You are absolutely correct that noone can stop you, and also: I wouldn't dream of trying! I merely want to add my own perspective for a little compare and contrast, because in a twist that will be shocking to absolutely no-one, I have thoughts on this! 🤣)

Okay, so, my personal headcanon:

I'm completely with you on Seven and Elnor! I'm getting major aspec vibes from them, though, at least in the case of Seven, not necessarily sex-averse.

I think, personally, I don't see Rios as ace. Can't even say why, and it's not a hill I'd die on, but it's just not my interpretation of him. On the other hand, I do headcanon Ian (the Emergency Engineering Hologram) as ace, and in my mind, the holos all inherited a lot of their personalities from parts of Rios. So it would seem that I at least see aspec tendencies in Rios that he then passed on 🧐

I wonder about Soji. I could see it, given she's Data's "daughter", and Data was fairly clearly asexual, imo. So, this might be one of the traits that carried over through the fractal neuronic cloning process.

Then again, she was ultimately created by Altan Soong and Bruce Maddox, and those two seem like EXACTLY the kind of ignoramous/lech who would think creating a beautiful young woman who doesn't feel sexual attraction would be a tragic waste, or that sexual attraction is a fundamental part of being human. I would fully expect society as a whole to have abandoned that attitude centuries ago by the time ST:LAS startd, but I can see these two muppets sitting together over a glass of port or whatever and having philosophical discussions about how dtf their nubile creations should be 🙃 (Maybe I'm not doing them justice. Please don't come for me, Maddox-Stans and Soong-Hive 😅 But that's my read of that whole situation so far...)

So yeah, I'm not sure my headcanon of Soji is that she's aspec. But I think she's definitely questioning and when she's finally fully out from under three years of false memories and secret missions and a life controlled by Maddox, who knows where she'll end up!

Now, Agnes is... complicated. My issue with Agnes is that I identify with her SO hard, it's very difficult to tease apart "this is what I think makes sense for the character" and "this is me projecting my own aspec identity onto her" 🙈🙈🙈

I honestly couldn't tell you where I think Agnes falls. She's flirtatious, she's definitely not sex-averse... but then again, when I watched her teasing Rios about his books, I didn't realize that was flirting until someone pointed it out to me. To me, it was just her being bored and bonding with her new crew (and using the distraction to force the shunted off Horrors in her brain to be quiet for a while). So yeah, I find it difficult to make up my mind on where I see Agnes on the allo-ace-spectrum, because my own identity so heavily biases any thoughts I have on that front 😅

(Also, only semi-related: I desperately wish we had gotten to see Agnes grow and get proper therapy and support and figure out who she is now that she's living with massive PTSD, but she's no longer so alone and has found a family crew that she loves and who support her. I think her character has a ton of potential, and now that she has people (and Emergency Holograms) who care enough about her to not just let her compartmentalize her pain but to help her work through it... so many possible directions she could develop in! And similar to Soji: who knows where she'd end up when she's no longer using all her energy to fight her own brain?)

Oh, but to add to the list: in my mind, Picard is definitely ace. And in a Romulan three-person marriage with Laris and Zhaban 🤣

(And again, because it bears repeating: I'm not saying that my headcanons are in any way shape or form "correct" and yours are wrong, OP! I love that we can have multiple readings of these characters and can compare where our interpretations match up or diverge in interesting ways, because that's what fandom is all about! 😁)

I have decided that Rios, Agnes, Elnor, Soji and Seven are all on the asexual spectrum and nothing and no one can stop me

[airi-p4]

Honestly I am not too pleased with Luka and Marinette becoming "just friends" when Marinette was romantically interested in Luka in Frozer and Silencer. I know I should be happy they are on better terms than Adrien and Kagami but it feels like the writers made Marinette out as a lousy person who used Luka as a rebound and Luka is a sad boy pining over a girl who never loved him. And since Luka is going to show up more I am afraid of what's to come next...That I will wake up one day find out...Either Luka is treated like a hypocrite for keeping a secret, Luka becomes a villain in a last ditch attempt to kill lukanette and make Adrien out as a better match for Marinette, or I wake up and find Luka and Zoe kissing in gif from. I am not watching this show...I am letting everyone else tell me what happens but I am not interested in leaving the lukanette fandom and I am inevitably going to bump into spoilers since not all of us quit the show.

You know, Emiko? It’s called: inconsistent writing. And I hate it too. 

Marinette said herself she liked and fell in love with Luka, both in ‘Truth’ and ‘gang of secrets’, and then, the show acts like she never did bc it’s convenient for the plot (with ‘plot’ I mean the love square). Plus, with Luka finding out, there’s no other way to keep them apart other than FORCE it. So yeah, horribly handled, especially after all the Lukanette and Adrigami development in S2 and S3, has turned out to be POINTLESS despite of how refreshing it felt compared to the LS (a massive waste of potential, IMO)

BUT-

‘Best friends’

As I’m not entirely satisfied with it (ngl), it still brings us hope for Lukanette scenes. And those scenes may be NICE to fix in fanon (best friends to lovers!!). That’s all we should focus on for now. Because Lukanette was never going to be endgame anyway and I’m QUITE SURE they’re going to make Luka act OOC soon, and that’s when I’ll flip tables (and probably stop watching the show for good except for Luka gifs bc I’m starving for Luka content)

Anyway: even if you don’t watch the show anymore and only get spoilers you may not want to know about, think of ‘the show’ as guidelines that can be fixed. And embrace fanon’s fix-its and AUs. At least, that’s how I’m going to watch the show from now on: take the crumbs, skip the uncomfortable bits (if possible), pretend the parts you don’t like /agree with never happened (Bless canon-divergence and AU tags) and give fanon all attention. 

'The canon show’ has failed us, but fanon won’t.

We have so many talented people on our side that it’s impossible not to get good fanon content. I 100% trust my Lukanette friends and family because they never disappoint 💙

And all this may be personal, Emiko, clearly my POV (and I may be changing my mind anytime as soon as they screw Luka’s character) but, imo: Canon is whatever your heart wants it to be. My HC are canon in my head. I believe in them so strongly I sometimes even forget ‘other people’s canon is actually that show that’s not enjoyable anymore’. What’s important is to enjoy the content. And if ‘the show’ doesn’t work for you anymore, then there’s no need on wasting your time with it. There’s nothing wrong in that. It’s ok to keep loving what you love in any way you prefer 💙

(But think about the BEST FRIENDS TO LOVERS POSSIBILITiES we can work in fanon!! Bc obviously, we know better, and we know Marinette is in love with Luka but she’s just in denial bc everyone and *destiny* forces and pushes her towards Adrien. How many good stories can come out of this? BEAUTIFUL) OK- I shut up now sorry this turned out super long XD And to finish, as I always say...

SCREW CANON, EMBRACE FANON

Your feelings are totally VALID, Emiko. I hope I helped you feel a little better? Stay strong because we’re here to support each other! 💙💙💙

[lol-jackles]

Amazon is desperate to have their own Games of Throne tv show that has a deep cultural impact. Amazon suffers from little bro syndrome watching Netflix, Hulu and HBO continuously putting out blockbuster shows while Amazon is still seen as a niche player in TV.

Amazon is its own worst enemy in this regard, IMO. It's like they don't comprehend that money doesn't automatically make a program good, or that you can make money off a good project that didn't cost that much. I'm sure HBO execs were unhappy when they realized that the first GOT pilot was bad, but they were able to recognize that they had wasted that money, accept the sunk cost, and make a new, better-quality pilot. Amazon just dug in its heels on The Rings of Power.

Then you have the good shows that they make but don't pay enough attention to. The Expanse, which Amazon took over after Syfy dropped it, had everything they could've wanted: Well-regarded source material to guide the writers, a strong cast including Oscar-winner Shohreh Aghdashloo, good special effects, diversity that actually made sense, in-universe slogans & images ripe for merchandising, and a setting that could have launched any number of spinoffs. Amazon barely promoted it to the general public, probably because of their dumb assumption that a Syfy-budget show couldn't compare to whatever they were blowing $10+ mil an episode on.

Compare that to how HBO, Netflix, etc., have handled smaller shows. Girls was about a bunch of dumb twentysomethings played by then-unknown actors, with few special effects. HBO still made sure subscribers knew about it. Netflix bought You-- which, according to IMDb, is only even shot with one camera-- after Lifetime canceled it, much like Amazon with The Expanse, but they didn't bury it in their catalog. Instead, its writers and actors did some press, the show stayed good, and it turned into a modest hit.

Amazon probably owns a lot of IPs with potential to make $$$. Unfortunately for the suits, they're too obsessed with justifying massive investments to make a realistic assessment of their products.

Agree with everything you said.  Amazon’s marketing of RoP was frankly very, very bizarre.  Amazon was attacking fans and calling them racist weeks before the show aired.  It was as if they knew PoP was crap and threw in diversity shields to shut down criticisms.  Just bizarre and unfortunately not uncommon marketing tactic these days.

[bigskydreaming]

All that said, while I’m against too many Krakoans ending up on the Great Ring as I think that misses the point of X-Men Red entirely, I do think the two best (most interesting) prospects are too busy being wasted elsewhere - not to mention never having explicitly been confirmed as omega.

Like I’m just saying......y’know who could be SO much more interesting on the GR, contrasting and conflicting with its Arakkii members as well as Ororo and Roberto....than Gabe or any of the other Krakoan candidates?

Madelyne Pryor and/or Mikhail Rasputin.

And either or both of them in X-Men Red would be putting them to way better use than X-Force or the upcoming Dark Web crossover.

But IMO, there’s no way for Madelyne and Joseph to NOT be omegas themselves, when genetically they’re identical to Jean and Magneto, and Mikhail is so overpowered he’d be very easy to retcon as having been omega all along.

And both Maddie and Mikhail, personality-wise and in terms of their respective histories, would be so much more interesting to see contrasting and interacting with the Arakkii than almost anyone else. They both have very Arakki-esque mindsets in a lot of ways, and histories and methodologies that would likely make them a lot more ‘acceptable’ in the eyes of most Arakkii than most other Krakoans they interact with.

Not to mention, they both can always be counted on to have their own agendas, be willing to do just about anything in pursuit of them, and they play their cards close enough to their chests that they have a ton of potential as either allies or antagonists for any given character in any given story. That confluence of factors means its entirely in character for both of them to be VERY capricious and mercurial in their interactions with others, and they can turn on allies or align themselves with enemies from one arc to another with very little notice.....because they’re so well-known for obscuring their true intentions or plans as a general approach to life, it makes as much sense for them to go in one direction as it does for them to go in another.

Tbh, after Maddie was brought back in Hellions and before we knew she was headed to a New Mutants arc with Ayala, I was reeeeeally hoping she might end up with Ewing and try and make the same kind of fresh start on Arakko as Ayala wrote her viewing Limbo as an opportunity for. And I actually loved what Ayala did do with Maddie in New Mutants, and their Labors of Magik arc is already going down as one of my all-time faves....but since it doesn’t look like Marvel’s intending to keep her on that trajectory Ayala established there, and her character already seems to be reversing course with Dark Web....I’m back on my ‘eh, forget the Limbo thing and send her to Arakko’ bullshit. There’s just SO much that could be done with her there.

Admittedly, its even LESS likely for Mikhail to ever end up in X-Men Red, since the X-Offices for whatever reason seem fond of Percy and Percy seems fond of his long-running, EXTREMELY slow-simmering Russia storyline, so chances of him letting go of Mikhail any time soon are slim to none, but like. It honestly wouldn’t be that hard to have Mikhail turn his sights to Arakko and try and establish a power-base there once the X-Force storyline with him DOES wrap up and his current plans are thwarted or whatever.

Anyway. Just saying. Mikhail and Madelyne have always been massively under-rated characters with a lot of history and potential as morally ambiguous, shades of grey figures that could be taken in any number of directions, and X-Men Red would be a fascinating fit for either of them. And not even just because of how they might interact with the Arakkii, but because both of them additionally have a ton of history with Ororo in specific. And how she views and interacts with either of them is not guaranteed to be ANYTHING like how most X-characters interact with them.

After all, before Madelyne became an infamous X-villain, she was one of Ororo’s closest friends...at times as close to her as Ororo’s been with Jean at other times. And Mikhail and Ororo not only have all their history as rival leaders of the Morlocks, and their occasional alliance on behalf of the Morlock community they both adopted as their own....a ton of her interpersonal relationships are entangled with Mikhail’s own in a lot of complicated ways. 

They both call Piotr ‘little brother’ after all, with Ororo’s history and relationship with Piotr far more extensive than Mikhail’s even if the latter’s is biological and stems from their childhood, not to mention they’ve both kinda had a will they/won’t they potential relationship with Callisto. And Storm was one of the earliest mentors of the little sister Mikhail barely knows....etc, etc.